Behind the Mic: Stan Verrett Takes Over as ABC College Football Host; Mike Tirico Won’t Announce NBC’s ‘TNF’ After All

Stan Verrett will host college football Saturdays on ABC this fall, filling the role of the late John Saunders who had held the position on ABC’s college football studio set since 1992. Verrett, who has worked for ESPN since 2000 and most notably anchors the 1 a.m. ET edition of SportsCenter from Los Angeles, will work alongside college football analysts Mack Brown and Mark May for pre and postgame, as well as halftime wraps. ABC college football studio coverage will continue to air out of ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn…

…The NFL has blocked NBC’s Mike Tirico from calling its upcoming Thursday Night Football games and Al Michaels will handle play-by-play for the package instead. The NFL’s statement (via spokesman brian McCarthy) explains: “When we bid out the Thursday Night Games, NBC came to us with an impressive pitch to bring the magic of ‘Sunday Night Football’ — specifically Al and Cris and their production team — to Thursday Night. That was very attractive to us as we look to continue to build on the success of ‘Thursday Night Football,’ and is similar to the deal we have with CBS for their lead broadcast and production team. We came to a contractual agreement with NBC on those terms. Our contract with NBC requires that the Sunday Night Team also do Thursday Night,” the NFL said. It is up to NBC to determine who the talent is for both nights based on those parameters.”…

…CBS unveiled its broadcast pairings for the upcoming NFL season. Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and Tracy Wolfson return as the lead THE NFL ON CBS team and also call Thursday Night Football games on CBS and NFL Network.  Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts will serve as the No. 2 team and call the Network’s top game on Sundays when Nantz and Simms do not call a game.  Greg Gumbel teams with Trent Green for the third straight year.  THE NFL ON CBS announce team also features Kevin Harlan with Rich Gannon; Spero Dedes with Solomon Wilcots; Andrew Catalon in a three-man booth with Steve Tasker and Steve Beuerlein;Tom McCarthy with Adam Archuleta; Carter Blackburn with Chris Simms; and Brad Nessler, who will call play-by-play for select games. In addition to Wolfson, game coverage includes sideline reporters Evan Washburn with Eagle-Fouts, and Jamie Erdahl with Gumbel-Green.  Selected games throughout the season also will include regional sideline reporters.

James Brown anchors the Network’s pre-game studio show, THE NFL TODAY, along with analysts Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher, Tony Gonzalez and Bart Scott, from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.  Jason La Canfora continues to serve as the NFL Insider…

…ESPN has hired Miami Hurricane National Champion, Super Bowl Champion and three-time Pro Bowler Jonathan Vilma as a college football studio analyst. Vilma will be reunited with his former Hurricane head coach and current ESPN college football analyst Butch Davison Saturdays on ESPN2 with Chris Cotter hosting during pre and postgame, as well as halftime wraps. Prior to being hired at ESPN, Vilma was a college football studio analyst for NBC Sports (2015) and an NFL studio analyst for NBC Sports Network and Bleacher Report (2014)…

…Turner Sports has reached a multi-year agreement with Casey Stern to join the company as a studio host for MLB, NBA and NCAA programming.  Stern will continue to host MLB Postseason studio coverage on TBS.  He will also broaden his responsibilities to host studio shows on NBA TV and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, in partnership between Turner and CBS Sports. Stern has hosted MLB Postseason on TBS studio coverage since 2014, alongside analysts Pedro Martinez and Gary Sheffield.  He has also occasionally hosted NBA studio shows on TNT and NBA TV over the last year.  In his new role, he will increase his appearances on NBA TV, as a host for its popular NBA GameTime program.  He will also host NCAA Tournament studio programing from Turner Studios in Atlanta.

 In addition to his Turner responsibilities, Stern will continue to host the weekday afternoon drive show Inside Pitch on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio channel, his radio home since 2008.  He will also host MLB Network Radio’s annual coverage of the World Series, All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, as well as SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Sunday NFL Tailgate show. Stern previously worked with MLB.com and MSG Network and was a contestant on ESPN’s reality series Dream Job in 2004…

…Kacie McDonnell will joined NESN as an anchor and reporter this September and will appear on NESN’s three main sports news programs: NESN Sports Today, NESN LIVE, and NESN Sports Update. McDonnell comes to NESN from NBC affiliate KSHB-TV in Kansas City where she served as a morning reporter and fill-in anchor. She was also a pre and post-game host for Major League Soccer broadcasts of Sporting Kansas City games on sister station KMCI-TV. The Villanova University graduate began her television career in Philadelphia with WTXF-TV FOX 29 where she was a pre-game reporter for Philadelphia Eagles games and morning reporter and fill-in anchor on Fox 29 Good Day Philadelphia…

…Analytics expert Cynthia Frelund has joined NFL Media. In her role with the NFL Media group, Cynthia will appear across several studio shows and platforms to provide statistical and advanced analytics insight. Cynthia will appear regularly on such NFL Network shows as NFL GameDay Morning and NFL Fantasy Live, as well as NFL Network’s coverage of the Super Bowl, NFL Scouting Combine and NFL Draft. Cynthia joins NFL Media from ESPN, where she served as a Predictive Analytics Analyst on SportsCenter for the past two years. Prior to joining ESPN, Cynthia was manager of Business Development for Disney/ABC in Los Angeles, analyst for the NFL’s CFO, and senior analyst for Fusion Finance…

…Carolyn Manno leads the roster of commentators as NBC Olympics presents more than 70 hours of coverage of the 2016 Paralympic Games from Rio. Manno, who returns for her second consecutive assignment as host of NBC Olympics’ coverage of the Paralympic Games, will be joined by 13 play-by-play commentators, analysts and reporters.

Play-by-play commentators Todd Harris, Jason Knapp and Steve Schlanger will also return for their second Paralympic Games and will call Track & Field, Swimming and Wheelchair Basketball, respectively. Ed Cohen makes his NBC Olympics debut and will serve as play-by-play announcer for coverage of Wheelchair Rugby.

In addition, three Paralympians will make their debut as NBC Olympics analysts. Three-time paralympic gold medalist Justin Zook will join Knapp for coverage of Swimming, 2012 Paralympian Katy Sullivan will join Harris for Track & Field, and two-time paralympic medalist Paul Schulte will join Schlanger for Wheelchair Basketball.

13-time paralympic medalist and Paralympic Hall of Fame member Chris Waddell (Track & Field), as well as former U.S. Quad Rugby Association President Gary Pate (Wheelchair Rugby), and two-time Olympian Kevin Barnett (Sitting Volleyball), will also serve as analysts.

Paralympic medalist Amy Purdy, Heather Cox and Lewis Johnson will serve as reporters for individual sports as well as the overall event. The 2016 Rio Paralympic Games will be Johnson’s second Paralympic Games for NBC Olympics, and first for Purdy and Cox…

…Former Philadelphia Eagles Seth Joyner and Barrett Brooks are joining the CSN Philadelphia/The Comcast Network’s Eagles game day programming. Joyner and Brooks will join Michael Barkann and Ray Didinger on the set of “Eagles Pregame Live,” “Eagles Postgame Live,” and “In-Game Live” on CSNPhilly.com. Derrick Gunn and Reuben Frank once again report from the field. Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell also returns this season. After “Eagles Postgame Live” Seth and Barrett join Amy Fadool for “End Game,” CSN’s social-media-influenced program that instantly reacts to what fans are saying.

Joyner, who spent 13 years in the NFL, including eight with the Eagles, will also appear in studio on TCN’s “Breakfast On Broad,” everyMonday during the season.  Barrett Brooks, who also spent 12 years in the NFL, is currently a host on “BOB,” airing each weekday on TCN and streaming live at www.BreakfastonBroad.com…

…The Pac-12 Networks announced on-air talent assignments for the fifth season of live games. Roxy Bernstein, Ted Robinson, JB Long, Jim Watson, Guy Haberman and Greg Wolf return as broadcasters, with Anthony Herron, Yogi Roth, Glenn Parker, Evan Moore and Erik Coleman as analysts. Lewis Johnson, Cindy Brunson, Jill Savage, Kate Scott, Drea Avent and Kyndra de St. Aubin will handle sideline duties.